Freeport Indonesia pays US$ 1.6 billion for 2006 financial obligation

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), a subsidiary of New Orleans-based copper and gold miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc announced that it paid US$ 1.6 billion, or approximately Rp 14 trillion financial obligations, to the government from January to December 2006.

The financial obligations are comprising $ 1.29 billion in corporate income tax, employee income tax, regional taxes and other taxes, $ 146 million in royalties, and $ 159 million in dividends, PTFI said in press release Monday.

Under its financial obligations as set out in the 1991 Contract of Work, from 1992 to 2006, PTFI has paid a total of $ 5.1 billion to the government.

According to PTFI, it has also made investments totaling nearly $ 5 billion for developing company?s infrastructure, investments of over $ 500 million in social facilities, direct employment opportunities for 9,000 people in 2006, in which 2,400 or nearly 27 percent are indigenous Papuans, provision of 10,700 jobs for contract, privatized company and other partner company employees in 2006 and purchase of domestic goods and services totaling over $ 4.3 billion. (denny)